12.22.2010

Bit By A Dog With A Rabid Tooth

Heyaaaa

I finished the first whale rib painting this weekend. It actually went a lot faster than I thought considering how tricky it was. It's like painting on wood in that I have to give up and accept that there are minuscule flaws in the surface that might occasionally mess up teeny tiny details that most likely no one but myself will notice. I'm just going to post a few detail shots until closer to my show when my photographer friend has taken better photos of it.I'm still trying to figure out whether I should coat it with the same gloss enamel I used on that deer jaw I painted. I keep going back and forth about it and worry about ruining it so if anyone has an opinion go ahead and share it! If it makes any difference these are all going to be displayed on black velvet in shadow boxes for the show so hopefully glare wont be a huge concern.

This guy is a Rosmarus, the result of what is clearly a "whisper down the lane" type description of a walrus (the scientific name for the walrus is actually Odobenus rosmarus!). Imagine if you had never seen a walrus or anything like it and were forced to describe it using only animals in your pool of reference. Something like "a fish with the head of a dog" actually starts to make sense. It was also sometimes described as having the head of a horse which is actually a little baffling to me. It is also believed to be directly related to the heraldic "marine wolf". Here are some old cartographic illustrations of them:It was actually believed that they walked onto the land to drink dew! That second illustration is from the Carta Marina, which is really interesting in it's own right! A lot of the monsters in bestiaries and medieval literature are represented on it. I've been looking at a lot of maps like this lately:I've mentioned before that I'm doing this next show with Mike. I don't usually post too much work by other people on here but I'm so excited about this poster he just finished for our Australian friends Dave and Pete that I wanted to share it:Goddamn! It's really cool living and working next to someone whose work you really like. We're going to check out the space sometime soon to try and figure out how best to fill it and split it up.

My friend Nishat just mailed us these amazing old barf bags for Mark of the Devil. Maybe we should give out barf bags at the door for our show....

hhhm i say no glaze. I dont know, its my personal choice honestly but i think it will also keep the more "organic" look of it. Either way its pretty amazing and always love what you do! just my two cents ;)